With Sidney Crosby and other stars in on negotiations, the NHLPA proves that it's stronger than ever. Plus, details on the proposal, the status of the NHL in the 2014 Olympics and early Calder favorites.

NHLPA members (AP Photo)

1. Union unity

Eight years ago, in the last round of collective bargaining, ownership was able to take advantage of the disjointed nature of the NHLP, ultimately playing a masterful game of divide-and-conquer to enact a salary cap and claim nearly total victory after the cancelled 2004-05 season.

Having spent his first 18 months at the helm mainly getting the union on the same page, Fehr has an advantage that his predecessors at the NHLPA did not. He is negotiating with a singular focus, while NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is representing 30 teams with disparate goals and interests.

The union’s CBA proposal, issued Tuesday, shows just how Fehr and the players are trying to push their platform through. This became clearer on Tuesday night, when Elliotte Friedman of the CBC specifically named the New York Islanders, Anaheim Ducks and Columbus Blue Jackets as teams that would benefit from the union’s proposed changes to the NHL revenue-sharing system.

Meanwhile, Larry Brooks of the New York Post reported that the NHLPA “proposed extra draft picks for teams in financial trouble that could be used, traded or sold,” which sounds very similar to the “competitive balance draft picks” that came out of the last round of Major League Baseball negotiations, as conducted by Fehr’s successor at the MLBPA.

What the NHLPA is doing is appealing to the interests of the league’s lowest-revenue clubs, trying to start by winning over a few owners rather than all 30 at once. The carrot for the big clubs (the free-spending ones, anyway) is the ability to go $4 million over the salary cap by trading for the extra space, as reported by Brooks. As for the rich teams whose only concern is lowering their bottom line, Fehr knows he’s not going to win them over, so he just has to hope that he can rally enough votes from the other segments of the ownership group.

The willingness to put a three-year drag on salaries is the union’s offer at a compromise. There should be more concessions, from both players and owners, as the negotiations go forward. There still is a long way to go to make a deal, and a short time until Sep. 15. There is no guarantee that the season will start on time, but by making a well thought-out alternative proposal rather than a straight counterproposal to the NHL’s initial plan, Fehr and the NHLPA chose a wiser path than drawing a line in the sand to make a show of their unity.

Max Pacioretty (AP Photo)

2. To the Max

The Canadiens had the worst record in the Eastern Conference last season, but their solid young core means that their rebuilding process should not be as painful as it is for other teams in a similar situation.

“From the get-go, we wanted to have a long-term deal, and they did,” Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin said at a Tuesday press conference. “So it was a perfect scenario for both sides.”

It works for the Canadiens because they get a top-line scorer, in his prime, on friendly terms through the years of unrestricted free agency that are bought out by the deal. It works for Pacioretty because he gets long-term security and more money up front than he otherwise might have expected.

Pacioretty, like Price, was a first-round pick for the Canadiens, whose success historically has been based around homegrown players. That no longer specifically means “players from Quebec”—identifying Pacioretty, Price and Subban as players to build around, along with revitalized the prospect pipeline, is a much wiser plan than splashing cash on prospective free agent saviors, or making short-sighted trades like the one that sent Ryan McDonagh to the Rangers for Scott Gomez.

Emphasizing a young, fairly inexpensive core means that the Canadiens can spend money to add depth to their roster, which they did at the start of the summer by signing Colby Armstrong and Brandon Prust. The idea is that when the young Canadiens at the heart of the renaissance become more expensive, depth players will be able to come up through the farm system.

That’s pretty much the plan that got the Rangers out of the doldrums, too. Now, what team can Bergevin find to take Gomez’s contract?

AP Photo (Sidney Crosby and Team Canada)

3. Ring it up

“Not knowing what will come out of the new CBA, do you think we will still see NHL players in Sochi in 2014? I think NHL players participating in the Olympics has created nice fan base for the NHL, especially in North America. However, it seems like there is a major push by owners, especially in the NBA, to make it an under-23 competition. Do you see any leaning toward that by the NHL owners and Gary Bettman?”—Chris Ocker

Having NHL players in the Olympics should be a no-brainer. The gold medal game in 2010, won by Canada on Sidney Crosby’s overtime goal, was arguably the sport’s defining on-ice moment of this century, and possibly the biggest moment in the Winter Olympics as a whole in 30 years. Especially considering the NHL’s relationship with NBC, sending the best players in the world to represent their countries provides a spotlight that even the Stanley Cup Finals cannot.

Of course, there are logistical issues. Interrupting the NHL season for a select group of players to go to Russia is fraught with problems in a way that the Vancouver trip was not, but it isn’t as if NHL players haven’t taken part in far-flung Olympics before, in Japan in 1998 and Italy in 2006. It’s not an unfamiliar concept to players, teams or fans, and not an excuse to stop it from happening.

One of the reasons that NBA owners want Olympic basketball to mirror soccer as primarily a tournament for young players is that the Summer Games come during the NBA offseason, and those owners would prefer that their players stay healthy and on board with teams’ summer training programs. Players who take part in Olympic basketball wind up at greater risk for injury, or have added fatigue when crunch time comes the following season. That’s an issue for hockey, as well, but the question of interrupting the season is much bigger.

Ultimately, decisions on who is eligible for the Olympics are made not by the NHL, but by the IIHF and IOC. At this point, NHL players are welcome. The league has to decide whether they will be allowed to go.

Well, sort of, anyway. If the NHL decides not to send its players to Sochi, it’s not going to make players not want to play for their countries. What would the league do if a star player decided to go to the Olympics despite NHL prohibition? “Welcome back, Mr. Ovechkin. Welcome back, Mr. Malkin. You’re suspended.” Good luck with that.

Chris Kreider (AP Photo)

4. Rookie watch

“Prediction for Calder winner?”—Connor

Obviously, as the No. 1 pick in the 2012 NHL Draft, Nail Yakupov is going to get a lot of buzz in preseason Rookie of the Year conversations, but there are plenty of other candidates in what shapes up as an interesting race.

One of Yakupov’s rivals for the Calder could be his teammate, defenseman Justin Schultz, who signed with Edmonton after spurning the team that drafted him, the Anaheim Ducks. Other players from “long-ago” drafts also should be in the mix—think of Chris Kreider with the New York Rangers after the 2009 first-round pick’s solid NHL debut in the playoffs, or 2010 first-rounder Jaden Schwartz in St. Louis.

Then, of course, there are the 2011 draftees who got a taste of the NHL last season, but still are rookies – Sven Baertschi in Calgary, Brandon Saad in Chicago and Mark Scheifele in Winnipeg in particular bear watching. Other picks from last year who have yet to debut, such as Florida’s Jonathan Huberdeau and the New York Islanders’ Ryan Strome, also could be in the mix.

The overall picture of the race will be clearer once we know which rookies make teams out of training camp. For now, Kreider and Schwartz should probably be considered the favorites based on their likelihood of getting minutes on productive lines with good NHL teams.

Marc Methot (AP Photo)

5. Senators debatable

“Other than Jason Spezza playing 75-plus games, Craig Anderson being the man again, Erik Karlsson being at least an All-Star, Milan Michalek matching a career, Daniel Alfredsson staying ageless, Kyle Turris showing his a legit second-line center for a full season, Jared Cowen avoiding a sophomore slump, Sergei Gonchar still being able to handle top-four minutes and maybe hitting the net every so often, one of two rookie backup goalies being ready to play 15-to-20 games, either Guillaume Latendresse, Colin Greening or one of the other prospects being able to be a top-six forward and some defense prospect stepping up and earning a job in camp, what else needs to happen to keep the Senators from regressing?” —Marc

That’s a rather extensive list, so there’s not much to add. The question highlights almost all of the questions that face Ottawa this season after the Senators, widely picked (including here) to be the worst team in the NHL in 2011-12, made a shocking run to the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference.

The big reason that the Senators were able to surprise the NHL: They adapted well to coach Paul MacLean’s open system and finished tied with the Vancouver Canucks for fourth in the NHL with 249 goals. If there are declines in the performance of veterans, the Senators will rely on the development of forward prospects such as Jakob Silfverberg, Mark Stone and Mika Zibanejad.

The real question, though, is a defense that allowed 240 goals last season, the most of any playoff team and more than everyone but the Hurricanes, Jets, Islanders, Blue Jackets, Maple Leafs and Lightning. Anderson remaining steady will be key, but for the Senators to be a real contender, Karlsson has to be better defensively—counting on the Norris Trophy winner for 78 points again feels like a stretch no matter how friendly the Ottawa system is to his offensive talents.

The real key, then, may be the play of Marc Methot, the 27-year-old defenseman acquired earlier this summer from the Blue Jackets for Nick Foligno. In 275 career games, Methot has seven goals and 44 assists—a true stay-at-home defenseman, it is impressive that he has a plus/minus of only minus-6 for his career despite playing his entire career in Columbus. Methot’s advanced stats aren’t so hot, but then, neither were those of Filip Kuba, who left for Florida as a free agent after partnering Karlsson last season.

The other very important thing to consider is that the Senators were fortunate from a health standpoint last season, with 10 players who appeared in 75 or more games. Only the Bruins (12) and Rangers (11) had more players feature 75-plus times than the Senators did, and not surprisingly, both of those teams were division winners. Just shy of making the list was Gonchar, who played 74 games, and enters this season at the age of 38.

Considering the repeatability of all of the above, starting with the points posed in the question, the Senators face a steep challenge to return to the playoffs. The good news for Ottawa is that the Senators are in the Northeast Division, where Boston has some uncertainty going from Tim Thomas to Tuukka Rask in net, Buffalo has not appreciably improved and neither Toronto nor Montreal has a roster that compares favorably. With the improvement of the Southeast and Northwest, it might be the weakest circuit in hockey this season.